


anyway, I just like you

by merryofsoul



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, M/M, baked goods as flirting, other members as side characters but I couldn't fit them all in such a short drabble :(
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-07-17 17:10:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16100081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merryofsoul/pseuds/merryofsoul
Summary: “I’m Mingyu,” the guy says. Wonwoo nods, just once, and replies, “Wonwoo.” He turns his attention to his backpack after that, taking out his notebook and textbook. He doesn’t intend to make friends with any of these people, he just needs to get through the next sixteen weeks of class, and then he never has to see any of them again.There’s more noise from the loud groups in the back. This already feels like it’s going to be the longest, most uneventful semester of his life.Wonwoo sighs. He’s not looking forward to it.





	anyway, I just like you

**Author's Note:**

> The first scene of this fic was inspired by a tumblr post I saw floating around, and then the rest of it came from me trying to fight some extreme traveling stress! Most of this was written on my phone while sitting on an airplane! It was supposed to be a short drabble, and it got a little longer than I thought, but I hope it's still short and sweet!
> 
> Thank you to helicases for encouraging this and betaing it and for introducing me to Seventeen in the first place :) 
> 
> Title from "Oh My!" which is one of the first Seventeen songs I listened to, and kept on repeat all summer.

**Week Four**

Wonwoo’s pencil moves steadily across the page as he works through the equation, occasionally glancing up at the board to make sure he’s following the correct steps. There’s a low murmuring from the table behind him as some of his classmates discuss how to approach the problem, and then a bigger disturbance from a few rows up where someone is trying to show off for the class by cracking jokes instead of working. Their professor shoots the offending student an unimpressed look and the guy quiets down, but only for a second. 

Wonwoo rolls his eyes and returns to his work. He loses his concentration once again when his tablemate chuckles, low and amused. Wonwoo glances over at him, not sure what the joke might be, and is surprised to find the guy looking right at him. 

“You’re my favorite person in this class,” the guy says, his voice loud enough to carry to Wonwoo but not too loud as to draw the attention of their professor. 

The statement comes out of nowhere, and Wonwoo tilts his head in confusion before asking, “Why?” 

“Because you don’t talk to anyone,” the guy explains. “You just sit there.” 

Wonwoo blinks. “I don’t know how to respond to that.”

“That’s because you don’t talk,” the guy says, and then with that, goes back to his work. Wonwoo stares at the side of his face for a long moment, trying to drag the guy’s name from the depths of his memory. They’re already a month into classes, they meet twice a week, _and_ they sit in the same seats every time. Wonwoo should definitely know his name. 

“Mingyu,” the guy says. He peeks up at Wonwoo again and smiles. It’s bright and a little pointy and Wonwoo finds himself staring. “My name’s Mingyu. It’s okay that you don’t remember.”

“I’m Wonwoo,” he blurts out in response. 

Mingyu hums, and his tongue pokes out a little. “I know,” he says, and goes back to his work. The blush that comes to Wonwoo’s face is immediate, and when he turns back to his paper, he has to start the entire equation from scratch. 

*

The next class, Wonwoo is already in his seat when Mingyu arrives for class. He smiles at Mingyu pleasantly, realizing he should make an attempt to be friendly. Plus, the guilt of forgetting Mingyu’s name in the first place has been eating at him since their previous class.

“Good morning,” Mingyu says, his smile happy and a little surprised. 

“Morning,” Wonwoo replies. He wants to add more, but Mingyu said the whole reason Wonwoo was his favorite was because he never talks, so he second-guesses himself and the words die on his lips. 

Mingyu smiles at him again, and then class starts and that’s the end of that. 

**Week Five**

Wonwoo embarrasses himself further the next week.

“I talk,” he blurts out as Mingyu settles into his seat. 

“I know,” Mingyu replies with an amused smile. “We just said good morning to each other.”

“I mean other than that,” Wonwoo says hurriedly. “I talk with my friends a lot.”

“What do you talk about?” Mingyu asks. Wonwoo’s mind immediately goes blank. 

“Um.” Wonwoo swallows. “You know. Things.”

“Interesting things, I bet,” Mingyu responds, not even missing a beat. “Some stuff too?”

“Oh yeah,” Wonwoo says. “Lots of stuff.”

Wonwoo is saved from himself by class beginning, but it takes most of the first half an hour for his skin to stop prickling with embarrassment. He tries not to look over at Mingyu throughout the class, failing more than once. Mingyu finally catches him looking and Wonwoo jerks back to his notes so abruptly that he snaps the lead in his pencil. 

He escapes at the end of the hour without saying anything else to Mingyu.

*

“Do you want a brownie?” Mingyu asks first thing next class, diving into his backpack and taking out a small Tupperware container. He cracks the lid and offers it to Wonwoo. They haven’t even said good morning to each other yet. 

“It’s nine in the morning,” Wonwoo protests, but he can’t take his eyes off the brownies. 

“Brownies go best with coffee,” Mingyu says, eyeing the travel mug in front of Wonwoo.

“That’s true,” Wonwoo says. His fingers are already reaching forward and selecting a corner piece. 

“I knew you were a weirdo,” Mingyu says, but he sounds so delighted about it that Wonwoo doesn’t have it in him to feel embarrassed or offended. He is a big fucking weirdo, and it’s easier if people know that off the bat. Wonwoo smiles evenly and bites into the brownie, cupping one hand under it as it crumbles delightfully. It’s still warm. Mingyu must’ve just baked them this morning. 

“It’s really good,” Wonwoo mumbles around his mouthful.

Mingyu frowns. “Only really good? I was going for amazing.”

“They are!” Wonwoo says. “They’re amazing.”

“Well now you’re just saying that,” Mingyu mutters. “No. I’ll have to try again.”

Wonwoo doesn’t get a chance to ask him what he means by that, because the professor swoops in, apologizing for running late, and class begins.

**Week Six**

Mingyu brings more brownies, but this time they’re combined with some other type of cookie. 

“They’re called marble brownies,” Mingyu explains, watching as Wonwoo tries to inconspicuously inspect the treat before biting into it. 

“What’s the other part?” Wonwoo asks. He can’t discern the taste. He licks his lips self-consciously when he sees Mingyu looking at them, wondering if there are crumbs sticking to them. 

Mingyu blinks. “Uh, cheesecake.”

Wonwoo hums. It isn’t his favorite, but he doesn’t want to say that. 

“Okay, I’m starting to hate how quiet you are,” Mingyu complains. “Just tell me you don’t like it and go.”

“Go where?” Wonwoo asks. He finishes the brownie in another bite. “And I like it just fine. _And_ —” Wonwoo picks up his pencil hurriedly as the professor makes the rounds of the room to see who might need help with the problem. He hasn’t even started. “I’m not that quiet.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Mingyu mutters. “Just during class time when you’re _supposed_ to be quiet.”

“Exactly.” Wonwoo gives Mingyu a pointed look — even though he’s secretly pleased that Mingyu remembered that explanation from a few classes ago — and goes back to his work. It’s hard to concentrate when he can see the grin on Mingyu’s face out of the corner of his eye. He lets the silence sit for a long minute before saying, “Thank you for the brownie.”

“I know you hated it, but you’re welcome,” Mingyu replies. 

Wonwoo ducks his head to hide his smile. 

*

Their professor doesn’t show up for their next class. They wait the allowed fifteen minutes for her to arrive, but once it hits the sixteenth minute, all of Wonwoo’s classmates are up and gone. Wonwoo hesitates just a second longer, feeling guilty even though the university rules say he’s allowed to leave. 

“Coming?” Mingyu asks, halting in his escape from the classroom to look at Wonwoo expectantly. 

“I guess,” Wonwoo says. Mingyu waits while Wonwoo packs up his unused supplies and slings his backpack over his shoulders. He keeps pace with Wonwoo as they leave the classroom, and stays next to him as they emerge onto the sidewalk. 

Wonwoo grasps desperately for something to say, but the only thing he can come up with is: “No brownies today?”

Mingyu stares at Wonwoo long enough that he starts to feel like an idiot — that was a joke between them right? Mingyu has shared his brownies with him twice now, it’s a _thing_ — but he feels his entire body relax when Mingyu finally laughs. “I ran out of time,” he says with a sheepish grin. “I didn’t realize you’d be expecting them.”

“They’re just the only thing I was looking forward to today,” Wonwoo says with a shrug and a fake sigh. “No big deal.”

“Oh my god,” Mingyu says with a delighted laugh. “You’re a _jerk_ too.”

Wonwoo’s only response is to blink and smile. 

“I actually have a few hours before my next class,” Mingyu says. “I have time to make them right now, if you want?”

“Right this second?”

“Are you busy?”

“I have class,” Wonwoo says. He seriously considers skipping in for a second, but mentally slaps himself. It’s an upper-level for his major. He can’t just skip it to hang out with a stupidly cute boy and make brownies. 

“Oh okay,” Mingyu says, and maybe it’s just a trick of the light, or how fast Mingyu turns his head away, but it almost seems like his smile dims. “Maybe next time?”

“Yeah,” Wonwoo says. They’ve come to a parting in the sidewalk and are both clearly heading in different directions. “Next time.”

Mingyu touches his fingers to his forehead in a mini salute, _winks_ , and walks off, leaving Wonwoo staring after him. He realizes he’s standing in the flow of traffic when someone bumps into him, and walks to his next class in double time, trying to outpace his racing heart. 

**Week Seven**

Wonwoo has just met up with Junhui in the student center when he sees Mingyu from across the sea of students eating lunch. He doesn’t mean to look more than once, but he’s not sure it’s Mingyu at first, and has to double check.

“What’s that look?” Junhui asks, readjusting so he’s in Wonwoo’s line of sight, blocking everything else out. “What did you see?” He turns, scans, and makes a small noise of delight. “I should ask _who_ do you see?”

Junhui’s fingers wrap tightly around Wonwoo’s elbow, getting a good grip even through the fabric of Wonwoo’s jacket. 

“What?” Wonwoo grimbles, trying to jerk his arm away. “Let go.”

“Who is that waving at you Wonwoo?” Junhui asks. He gasps a little. “Oh my god. Wave back you monster! He looks like a kicked puppy!”

Wonwoo peeks around Junhui again, and sure enough, Mingyu is looking a little slumped and defeated. Wonwoo raises a hand in greeting, way too far away to say anything, but he can at least wave. Mingyu waves back enthusiastically, and then almost falls over his feet as one of his friends grabs him by the backpack and tugs him along. Wonwoo laughs despite himself, and covers his mouth with his hand to try and keep the sound in. Mingyu throws one last grin in Wonwoo’s direction before he’s finally pulled out of sight. 

“Oh,” Junhui says. “I see.”

Wonwoo drives an elbow into Junhui’s ribs, and deals with Junhui’s complaints about the pointiness of Wonwoo’s appendages for the rest of the afternoon, because at least he isn’t fielding questions about Mingyu. 

Wonwoo wouldn’t know how to answer them. 

*

“Oh, Jesus,” Wonwoo mutters when Mingyu shuffles into the classroom. Mingyu looks like _shit_ with a runny nose and puffy eyes, and Wonwoo feels a surge of sympathy at the sight. He also doesn’t want to be sitting at the same table as him, but thinks it’s too late to move now. 

“Stop looking at me like that,” Mingyu rasps. “I’m not contagious.”

Wonwoo didn’t realize he was looking at Mingyu any sort of way, and snaps his attention back to the front of the room. Mingyu sits next to him and breathes, which wouldn’t be a notable thing on a regular day, but Wonwoo can hear each, scratchy inhale. 

“Are you sure you should be here though?” Wonwoo asks. “You look...tired.”

Mingyu glares at him, which is such an expected thing coming from Mingyu that Wonwoo gapes a little bit. Mingyu sees the look on his face and sighs. 

“I’m sorry,” Mingyu says. “I’m just…”

“Mean.”

“Tired.”

Mingyu pouts. “I’m not mean.”

Wonwoo raises his eyebrows. “That look was mean.”

He looks Mingyu over, from the hoodie that’s swamping his frame to the way Mingyu is slumped against the table like it’s the only thing keeping him upright. There’s no sort of backpack or bag on his person.

“Where’s your stuff?”

Mingyu sighs. “I knew I’d forgotten something.”

Wonwoo tuts and draws some blank paper out of his folder and passes it over with a pencil and eraser. After a moment of thought, he adds some cough drops to his pile of offerings. 

“Why do you have these?” Mingyu asks, already reaching for one. 

“Just in case,” Wonwoo shrugs. Mingyu doesn’t need to know that Wonwoo is a neat freak and terrified of getting sick and that staying at the table with Mingyu is giving him some low-grade anxiety. 

“Thanks,” Mingyu says with a small smile. It makes him look like himself again, and Wonwoo lets out an internal sigh of relief. 

Mingyu tries to give back the supplies at the end of class, but Wonwoo lets him keep them. Maybe it’s because Mingyu looks pathetic, or maybe it’s some sort of repayment for the brownies. Or maybe it’s because of the way Mingyu’s face lit up when he first saw the eraser. 

Wonwoo doesn’t even care that it was the last of his fruit set. The loss is worth it. 

**Week Ten**

Wonwoo stares helplessly at the board, wondering what the fuck is even going on.

“You’re back!” Mingyu exclaims as he slides into his seat. Wonwoo gives him an unimpressed look. 

“You said you weren’t contagious,” Wonwoo says. “You lied.”

Mingyu’s eyes widen in distress. “I promise I wasn’t! I even went to the doctor and they said I wasn’t.”

Wonwoo hums in disbelief, but he knows that Mingyu is probably telling the truth. After showing up to class sick, Mingyu had missed both classes the next week, so Wonwoo wasn’t exposed to his germs at all. Then Wonwoo himself got sick the following week, but it was probably actually the flu going by his aches and shivers, which were different symptoms than what Mingyu had exhibited. 

“Do you want my notes from last week?” Mingyu asks. Wonwoo looks at Mingyu’s messy papers and thinks he’d be better off finding the slides online, but accepts the offer anyway. Their fingers brush when Mingyu hands them over, and Wonwoo focuses very hard on Mingyu’s handwriting instead of the tingling moving up his arm. 

They exchange another grin — Wonwoo does that a lot around Mingyu, it seems — and then class is starting. 

**Week Eleven**

“No, no,” Seokmin shouts. “Those aren’t the lyrics!”

“So sing them!” Seungkwan yells back, partially because it’s loud at the party, but mostly because he wants to be right and he doesn’t like his knowledge of musical theater questioned.

“Rebeccaaaaa!” Seokmin sings. “Rebeccaaaaaa! I don’t know!”

“Rebeccaaa!” Wonwoo chimes in from his seat on the couch, because Seungkwan looks like he’s about to start yelling and Wonwoo wants to provoke it. Nothing is funnier than riling Seungkwan up. Wonwoo wouldn’t normally sing so loudly and publicly, but he’s feeling relaxed due to his friends laughing around him and the couple of drinks he’s already downed. Plus, no one else should be able to hear him over the music and chatter of the party. 

Seungcheol announces his arrival by dropping heavily onto the couch cushion next to him and bouncing Wonwoo unceremoniously. 

“So, don’t get nervous,” Seungcheol starts. “But this hot guy has been watching you for like, the last twenty minutes.” 

Wonwoo laughs. “What?” 

“Someone is making eyes at you, Wonwoo,” Seungcheol says seriously. “He’s by the drinks. Don’t—”

Wonwoo looks immediately, and sees the guy in question looking back. Mingyu grins when he sees Wonwoo looking his way. 

“That’s Mingyu,” Wonwoo says, watching as Mingyu weaves his way through the people packed into the apartment and heads for Wonwoo’s couch. “He’s in my calc class.”

“I’ll just—” Seungcheol shoots to his feet and joins Seokmin’s and Seungkwan’s little huddle before Wonwoo realizes he stood up, and then Mingyu is standing next to the empty seat. 

“Can I sit?” 

Wonwoo nods and can’t help but stare as Mingyu lowers himself onto the cushion. It’s a shitty, school provided couch, so the cushions are old and worn. It’s inevitable that their sides press together, especially since Mingyu is the fourth person to squish himself onto the couch, but Wonwoo doesn’t mind the closeness. Mingyu jostles Wonwoo’s knee with his own to get his attention, as if Wonwoo wasn’t already laser-focused on him. 

“What were you singing?” Mingyu asks, a grin flirting around the edges of his mouth.

Wonwoo flushes. “Oh my god. You heard that?”

“Not really,” Mingyu says. “But you looked really into it.”

“Well, I’m not singing it again,” Wonwoo says.

“Aw.” Mingyu nudges Wonwoo gently. “Please?”

“Nope,” Wonwoo replies. “In fact, I don’t sing at all. You must’ve been mistaken.”

“Ha!” Seungkwan crows from where he, Seokmin, and Seungcheol have been so obviously eavesdropping on their conversation. “I know exactly how to make you sing, hyung.”

Seungkwan raises his hands to come together over his head like a fin. Wonwoo has a bad feeling about this. 

“Baby shark, doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo,” Seungkwan and Seokmin start singing simultaneously, and under different circumstances Wonwoo would be impressed at their synchronicity. He groans, but manages to hold out through the entire verse without joining in, though it’s definitely a difficult urge to fight. He can see Seungcheol gearing up to sing the mama shark verse, and is surprised when Mingyu’s voice joins in. But still, he holds firm and keeps his mouth shut. 

However, by the time his friends start to sing the third verse, Wonwoo is fully into it, adding a low tone to the impromptu performance. He can hear Mingyu breaking off next to him to giggle occasionally before jumping back into the song. Under normal circumstances, Wonwoo would be too embarrassed by this whole thing, but all of his friends are fully immersed in a competition to see who can make the biggest shark bites, and Mingyu is clapping happily along on the couch next to him, so Wonwoo decides not to care. 

After the shark song, someone starts up another ocean related song, and then another and another. Soon Wonwoo finds himself singing _The Little Mermaid_ with Mingyu, Mingyu’s arm heavy around his shoulders. Mingyu’s voice is surprisingly sweet, and his slight lisp is more pronounced than it is in class, probably due to the drinks he’s had. Wonwoo leans closer than he probably should, but Mingyu doesn’t push him away. 

At the end of the night, Mingyu sticks with their little group as they all head toward the general direction of their apartments. Wonwoo is half-eavesdropping on Mingyu’s and Seungcheol’s conversation, but mostly thinking about the ramen he’s going to make when he gets back to the apartment, when Seungkwan slips his arm through Wonwoo’s and tugs him close. 

“He’s nice,” Seungkwan murmurs, actually keeping his voice quiet for once. “I like him.”

“Me too,” Wonwoo says, too honestly. But he can’t take it back, even as Seokmin coos on his other side. 

Mingyu glances back at them at the increase in noise, eyes darting between the three of them as he tries to figure out what they’re talking about. Wonwoo smiles but doesn’t elaborate, and when Mingyu smiles back, butterflies erupt in his stomach. 

“Maybe I like him a lot,” Wonwoo admits after Mingyu’s turned back around. Seungkwan’s delighted laughter echoes long and loud around them, causing Mingyu to glance back at them once again, and Wonwoo grins for the rest of the walk home. 

**Week Twelve**

“Hey?”

Wonwoo glances up at Mingyu, and then back down at his paper. Mingyu looks confused that he’d arrived and gotten settled and Wonwoo has yet to say a word to him. 

“Hey,” he says, and even that sounds weird and shaky. He doesn’t know why he’s so nervous. He hadn’t done anything _that_ embarrassing the night of the party, just the singing he normally would’ve kept to himself, but his brain had different ideas. The past two days have been filled with anxiety-induced stomach aches and his mind replaying their last interaction over and over. But he couldn’t have embarrassed himself that much, because Mingyu is smiling at him just like he always has. 

_What if you asked him out?_ His demon brain whispers to him. He’s opening his mouth to speak before he can stop himself. 

“Do you want—”

“I was thinking—” Mingyu starts at the same time. Wonwoo stutters to a stop and feel his entire face heat. 

“What were you going to ask?” Mingyu asks, looking encouraging, and Wonwoo must be projecting, because Mingyu looks a little hopeful too. Still, he panics. 

“Do you want to do this week’s homework together?” Wonwoo blurts out. “There’s a lot and I think it’d be easier to go through it with someone else.”

A lie. It looks like the easiest homework of the semester. 

“Oh,” Mingyu says. “Yeah, sure.”

They exchange numbers, and Wonwoo thinks it’s a little ridiculous that they’re only getting around to it now that the semester is more than halfway over, but it doesn’t surprise him that he was too chickenshit to get Mingyu’s number before this. 

As class starts, Wonwoo peeks out of the corner of his eye and sees Mingyu smiling down at his notebook, as if studying with Wonwoo is something to be excited and happy about. 

The butterflies return in full force. 

*

“Where are you going?” 

Wonwoo looks up from where he’s stepping into his shoes and glances at Junhui, who’s sprawled across the couch with his head in Minghao’s lap. 

“The library.”

“I thought you were hanging out with Mingyu,” Minghao says. Wonwoo doesn’t remember talking to Minghao about it, but he’s not surprised he knows. 

“I am,” Wonwoo replies. 

“Oh, you’re actually studying?” Junhui asks. Wonwoo narrows his eyes, not liking Junhui’s tone. “Interesting.”

“Do you always dress up to go to the library?” Minghao asks. 

Wonwoo swings the door open. “Bye!”

Wonwoo’s original intention had been to ask Mingyu on a date, of course it was, but he’d panicked. Then when he was drafting the text to Mingyu, he typed out about a thousand different suggestions before backing out of all of those plans and settling for the least romantic place — the library. But yeah, maybe he’d worn a nicer shirt than he usually would to go to the library. Fuck Minghao for pointing it out, though. 

Mingyu is already there when Wonwoo arrives, sitting in a chair by the circulation desk. He jumps to his feet when he sees Wonwoo and says, “Hi!” He gets a glare for his volume, while Wonwoo hides a grin in his scarf. 

“I have the perfect spot,” Mingyu says. He reaches out as if he’s going to grab Wonwoo’s hand to lead him there, but stops at the last second. He redirects his hand to fiddle with the straps hanging off his backpack, and Wonwoo tries to swallow his disappointment. 

It really is a good spot, out of the way of any traffic and near a set of windows. The table is pretty big, but their knees still knock together underneath it as they sit down across from each other. Wonwoo ducks his head and focuses on spreading out his notes. 

It’s Mingyu who actually gets them started, spinning his notebook around and asking Wonwoo how to start one of the more complicated problems. Wonwoo tries not feel disappointed as he explains the steps, because he’s the one who suggested studying and the library in the first place. Any disappointment he feels about how this is going is all his own fault. 

Wonwoo gets so focused on the homework, in fact, that when Mingyu does reach for his hand, he startles so much that he knocks his pencil case right off the table. His stuff goes rolling across the carpet and Wonwoo can only watch as Mingyu crouches down on the floor to start collecting it all. 

“Fuck, I am so sorry,” Mingyu groans. Then, lower as if Wonwoo isn’t supposed to hear it, “Fuck, what the _fuck._ ”

“Mingyu—”

“Here,” Mingyu blurts, standing and shoving Wonwoo’s reassembled pencil case back at him. “I have to go — look for a book.”

Wonwoo blinks. Mingyu is already gone. 

“Fuck,” he says, too loudly if the pointed _shhhh_ he gets in return tells him anything. He abandons their things on the table and takes off after Mingyu. He didn’t go far — Wonwoo finds him in the literary fiction section. Mingyu looks up in surprise when Wonwoo’s sneakers scuff the carpet at the end of the stack. 

“Oh,” Wonwoo says when he sees that Mingyu actually has a book in his hands. “ _Oh_ , shit, I thought you left because—”

“Because I made an idiot of myself?” Mingyu scoffs and turns his gaze back to the shelf in front of him. “I did. But then I realized where I was and decided to grab something anyway.”

Wonwoo takes a few, tentative steps forward. “Sherlock Holmes?”

Mingyu looks from the book, to Wonwoo, and then back to the shelf. 

“Yeah, you recommended it a little while ago, so I thought I’d try it.”

Wonwoo remembers the conversation. Mingyu had caught sight of the novel in Wonwoo’s backpack and asked what he liked to read, and Wonwoo had accidentally dominated the conversation by chattering about his favorite books. Mingyu hadn’t seemed to mind at the time, but Wonwoo didn’t realize he actually retained any of the information. 

“You didn’t make an idiot of yourself,” Wonwoo says, eyes on the book because it’s easier to focus on that than on Mingyu’s face. “I’m the one who should be embarrassed.”

Mingyu scoffs. “Why?”

“Because I was too much of a loser to ask you on an actual date, so I asked you here instead, and then I panicked when you tried to hold my hand.” Wonwoo stops short. “At least — I think that’s what you were trying to do.” 

It’s Wonwoo’s turn to decide whether or not he wants to make an escape, but Mingyu is finally looking at him, so he stays put. 

“I was,” Mingyu says.

“Oh, good,” Wonwoo replies, and steps forward to kiss Mingyu. It’s weird at first, because Mingyu’s mouth was open like he was about to say something else, but it smooths out once they both get on the same page. Wonwoo hears the thunk of the book hitting the floor as Mingyu drops it, and then both of Mingyu’s hands are wrapped tightly around Wonwoo’s hips. 

“The _binding_ ,” Wonwoo pulls away to mutter. “How dare you?”

“God, you’re such a nerd,” Mingyu replies, already trying to draw Wonwoo into another kiss. Wonwoo sends a silent apology to the book and lets Mingyu pull him in.

**Week Fifteen**

“Brownies?” Soonyoung asks, sliding into the room with a delighted look on his face. 

“Not for you,” Mingyu says to his roommate, and then from right next to Wonwoo: “Here.”

Wonwoo looks up from his study guide for next week’s final and gets rewarded with a faceful of brownie batter for his trouble. It smears across his cheek and under his eye. Wonwoo pins Mingyu with a death glare. 

“Why?” Wonwoo asks as Mingyu’s mouth drops open in surprise. “Why would you have it that close to my face, ever?” 

“You moved too quickly!” Mingyu yelps, too intent on defending himself to realize Wonwoo is reaching into the bowl in his hands. He yelps again when Wonwoo draws chocolate covered fingers down his cheek.

“You deserved that,” Wonwoo says when Mingyu starts to pout. He sticks his fingers into his mouth to lick away the excess chocolate and hums at the taste. “Oh wow. This is really delicious.” 

Mingyu snaps from looking dazed to looking delighted. “Really? Is this the one?”

“Never mind,” Soonyoung interrupts. Wonwoo didn’t even realize he was still in the kitchen. “I don’t want anything to do with these brownies.”

“More for me,” Wonwoo says with a grin, which only cranks up a notch when Soonyoung’s door slams down the hall. Mingyu grins and leans in for a chocolate-flavored kiss.

It takes them a little while to actually get around to baking said brownies. 

**Week One**

Wonwoo gets to the classroom five minutes before the class is supposed to start and claims a seat at one of the emptiest tables. The noise level in the room is already higher than he’s used to, but it makes sense when he looks around and sees the cliques that have somehow already formed among his classmates. They’re all laughing like they’re the funniest people in the world, and Wonwoo can already feel himself losing patience with them. 

He glances up at the ceiling in an attempt to gather some chill for the day, and hears a snort of laughter from next to him. He looks over at his tablemate, who glances away from Wonwoo when he realizes he’s been caught, and then back again quickly.

“I’m Mingyu,” the guy says. Wonwoo nods, just once, and replies, “Wonwoo.” He turns his attention to his backpack after that, taking out his notebook and textbook. He doesn’t intend to make friends with any of these people, he just needs to get through the next sixteen weeks of class, and then he never has to see any of them again. 

There’s more noise from the loud groups in the back. This already feels like it’s going to be the longest, most uneventful semester of his life. 

Wonwoo sighs. He’s not looking forward to it.

**Author's Note:**

> My [twitter](https://twitter.com/guccitaeg)!


End file.
